[Granville-Hough] 7 Feb 2010 - Helicopter Crash

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:23:10 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Helicopter Crash - 7 Feb 2010

    When my children related the story of my helicopter crash in Natick, 
MA, I did not think about it being a story which would be suppressed, 
but that is what happened. The esence of the story was that  I  was 
flying from battery to battery, as the new batallion commander, then 
giving a quick introductory talk and inspection and then moving on. The 
pilot was from Missisippi, and we had a lot in comon. I was enjoying the 
woods and rocks of New England as we flew from Rhode Islands up to the 
battery closest to Natick. I was looking down at the woods and huge 
boulders, when suddenly the engine stopped. So we went down! down!  
Suddenly the pilot saw a small plot of land, not much bigger than the 
helicopter, itself. So we clipped the treetops and slammed into the 
litle garden. A few feet away stood a retired Lebanese worker. Our skids 
went to the depth of where the farmer had plowed, and the still-rotating 
blades missed him by a couple of  feet.
    As soon as we had determined we were all safe, we made the necessary 
calls to continue the inspection by car. The wife and daughter brought 
out tea and cookies, and the old farmer recovered from his shock.
    As a sequel to this little story, one of the enlisted men wrote his 
version of being inspected by helicopter. I don't think he ever heard 
the full story. It was always my belief we simply ran out of fuel.  
Running out of fuel was not something one wanted on their record, so no 
one said a word about it.    Grandpa's Cold War Experiences.